Physics of droplet regulation in biological cells

2025/01/23 by David Zwicker, Oliver W. Paulin, Zwicker, David +3 · 1 voice · 17 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Engineering · #Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer #Physics #Plant Surface Properties and Treatments

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2501.13639

published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)

openalex publication_date 2025/01/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Droplet formation has emerged as an essential concept for the spatiotemporal organisation of biomolecules in cells. However, classical descriptions of droplet dynamics based on passive liquid-liquid phase separation cannot capture the complex situation inside cells. This review discusses three distinct aspects that are crucial in cells: (i) biomolecules are diverse and individually complex, implying that cellular droplets possess complex internal behaviour, e.g., in terms of their material properties; (ii) the cellular environment contains many solid-like structures that droplets can wet; (iii) cells are alive and use fuel to drive processes out of equilibrium. We illustrate how these principles control droplet nucleation, growth, position, and count to unveil possible regulatory mechanisms in biological cells and other applications of phase separation.

Citations

• Selective Ion Binding and Uptake Shape the Microenvironment of Biomolecular Condensates
• Tag with Caution — How protein tagging influences the formation of condensates
• Biomolecular Phase Separation: From Molecular Driving Forces to Macroscopic Properties
• Liquid–Liquid Phase Separation in Disease
• Hydrodynamic theory of active matter
• Nucleation in Polymers and Soft Matter
• Dynamics of Entangled Solutions of Associating Polymers
• DIFFUSE-INTERFACE METHODS IN FLUID MECHANICS
• On the equilibrium of heterogeneous substances
• Über die von der molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendierten Teilchen

Cited by

• Memory-Driven Self-Propulsion and Flocking of Chemically Active Droplets
• Molecular simulations of phase separation in elastic polymer networks
• Conservation laws and slow dynamics determine the universality class of interfaces in active matter
• Principles of Client Enrichment in Multicomponent Biomolecular Condensates
• Physical Mechanism of Vacuole Formation in Liquid Droplets
• Advection selects pattern in multistable emulsions of active droplets
• Phase transitions and microphases in elastomers. I. Emergence of stable domains
• Liquid-liquid phase separation enables highly selective viral genome packaging
• Metastable phase separation and information retrieval in multicomponent mixtures
• Coarsening model of chromosomal crossover placement
• Arrested coarsening, oscillations, and memory from a conserved phase separating nucleator in a self-straining cytoskeletal network
• Dynamics of phase separation in non-local elastic networks
• Self-propulsion via non-transitive phase coexistence in chemically active mixtures
• Active viscoelastic condensates provide controllable mechanical anchor points
• Accelerated Ostwald ripening by chemical activity
• Computer simulations show that liquid-liquid phase separation enhances self-assembly
• Externally driven condensates show translation-induced polarization, directed coalescence, and anomalous diffusion in viscoelastic media

Discussions

• We wrote a review on the "Physics of droplet regulation in biological cells": arxiv.org/abs/2501.13639 Beside the basic #physics of phase separation, we discuss three aspects that separate cellular fr [bsky, 64 points, 1 comments]

Related

• Heterogeneous Nucleation and Growth of Sessile Chemically Active Droplets
• Reaction-driven Diffusiophoresis of Liquid Condensates: Mechanisms for Intra-cellular Organization
• The crucial role of elasticity in regulating liquid-liquid phase separation in cells
• Excitability and oscillations of active droplets
• Biomolecular Phase Separation: From Molecular Driving Forces to Macroscopic Properties